Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1887-11-15
A ROMANCE OF HATRED.
ALLEGED FACTS CONCERNING LlNGG,
THE CHICAGO BooM-MAKER.

man, He Hated the Upper Classes
with an Undying Hate--Chicago Labor
Papers on the Great Case-Sustenance
for the Widows-Pentecost's yiews-Herr
Most Bad Man.
CHICAGO, Nov. l5-"I could tel. you an
interesting story" said a Jail official Monday
morning, addressing reporter, "and though
it is the truth from beginning to end, yet it
is so strange that it may seem more fiction
than any thing else. don't care to have my
name mentioned, and should prefer not to
mention the maine OF the man am going to
speak of, but to do so would destroy the
point of my story very much, so I will go
right ahead and say am going to talk Of
Lingg, the Anarchist bomb-maker.
"You know, of course, that Lingg was
born in a town in Germany called Mann
helm. You didn't know. possibly, that his
mother is dressmaker there aud pretty we'll
to-do, too, and that shortly after her son
was condemned to death she wrote him a
long letter That letter was never made pub
lie. Il ought not to be, and am only GO
ing to tell you so much of its contents as
may suit the purpose OF my story. She gave
up all hope for him on learning the facts
that came out on the trial aud told him to die
bravely. She sent him no money, though
she could afford to do So and whatever were
hsr feelings over the certainty that her son
was to die, they were not dis
closed in the letter She must be a woman
OF uncommon will power Doubtless it was
from her that Lingg inherited his resolution.
You know what desperate man he was
You know how uncompromising, how de-
termined, how daring. All of us about the
Jail were aware that the man set no value
upon his life. He cared not the snap of his
finger for it Spies said he could not under
stand Lingg Schwab said he was puzzle
| The others looked upon him as an odd COM
pound of hardihood, unquestioned physical
| courage, but mentally so odd that they
never knew how to take him He was the
slave of contradictory Impulses.
"Lingg's father was nobleman his
| mother came from the humber classes Her
parents were dependents, and lived on the
estate of this nobleman's father. The girl
was comedy and an intimacy sprang up be-
tween her and the son of the old nobleman
1t was the old, old story The man who
ended his life in such terrible manner here
| last Thursday was not born in wedlock We
| know that; Capt. Setback knows it, and we
know further that Lingg hated his father
with ferocity that was something terrible
He hated the class to which his father be-
longed-he had and despised the ruling class
| He hated the rich
"But some of the qualities belonging to his
father helped to make Lingg the strange man
he WAS He had quick intelligence, and
though his educational opportunities were
limited he was fairly well read and fluent
and convincing talker in German He aspiretl
to work change in the condition of things
which oppressed the working class and to af-
ford the poor larger measure of content
ment- | have an idea this part Of his char
acter came from his father but then associate
that with spirit of Impotence, sense Of
wrong and injustice, a feeling of hatred fol
those in authority, and you see what mixed
character you have. The nOhlem an cam,
from family of soldiers; there is wher,
l4ingg got his stubborn physical courage
From a child until he WAS 10 he was made tc
suffer from the taunts aud insults of his play
mates. He was sensitive, and these affron +
embittered his whole life.
AT IL he was sent to Switzerland There
he was brought up in the society of revolu
|
In that society he was facile pupil He
learned to plot and to scheme easily as
duck takes to water. But the innate nobility
OF one phase of his character made him
proof against indulgence in mere appetite
He never drank, he never riotsd, or INDUCED
in blasphemy. Wasn't he and odd character
And haven't | accounted for his Oddity
pretty wellf'
. Nh hat h. II -
are receiving the attention of their friends
IL is proposed that the families of the mer
hanged and sent to prison shall not suffer
want, and those who need help are to be sup
ported by a national organization which
will Immediately perfect plans for raising &
fund for that purpose.
The friendly newspapers are full of ex
pressions regarding the end of the tragedy
The Labor Enquirer, Buchanan's paper, ap
pears in mourning, and has long editoria
in which it is asserted that public opinion
demanded the lives of the con
demned men, justice or no justice, but the
: were really hung for exercising the right O
G free speech-intemperate the speech ma
, have been. but it deserved, if any, lighte
punishment Referring to Parsons the edto
} says:
An American, whose ancestor Fought FOR IRE
: dom, who was rearing family of native Amer
l cans, has thus been involved and stricken dow
2 for exercising tine faculty of speech, intemperat
at times under excitement but still nothing NOR
: | than speech. This American was the most prt
, noIlnced Anarchist of the whole eight (nearl
. all being known as Social Democrats and ha
| | been preaching against social evils years befor
. | his companions this country. The CT
| against foreign agtators" is not pertinent
this case and to the true philanthropist it is q
q ways odious.
Could that ancestor have reviewed In viso
the past two years, he would hav flung do wn h
. | sword and feel to the wilderness or submitted
tyranny in despair.
J The Arbeiter Zetung. the late Angus
Spies paper, has the following:
LAW What is lawf The work of mani This
shall change and will change according to tn
necessities of the masses of the people who wi
learn to laugh At your Idols placed befor
l them.
| With their law they wanted to smother tn
! revolution. You fools, you only feed it with it.
But enough. We have buried our friends The
? were men-whoe men, proud men. May the
now rest in everlasting peace and may th
everlasting disquietude which they left on
| legacy continue in active life.